Oh crap! For dogs?

[pequini]

We are struggling in the potty training department with a breed that's notoriously hard to potty train. Any suggestions?

Wee, poo or both ?
Have you used puppy pads ?

Take them outside regularly. This may mean every hour to start with
Ignore indoor wee and poos (blame yourself for not taking them out in time!) clean with correct enzyme solution.

Make a note to take them outside more often.
Praise like mad when they have done a wee or poo.

and repeat

Is it a small dog breed?
Do not use puppy pads

As well as frequently taking pup outside (upon waking, after eating, after drinking, after playing plus at least once an hour, maybe even once every half hour initially), try tethering pup to you so that he can’t sneak off to pee.

Ditch pee pads, they are confusing. It should never be ok to eliminate inside.

Make sure you clean up any accidents with an enzymatic cleaner so that the spot doesn’t smell like a toilet to pup.

Good luck!

Said puppy is weeing and pooing in the house. I take her out and she will go soon as we are back in. She's being taken out every half hour. We've had 8 accidents today. She goes in the crate to wee in it! 🙈

We aren't using pads. She's huge. And I just think it add to the confusion.

I think you are going to have to out wait her. Stay in the garden until she goes. Massive praise when she does. It’s not ideal at this time of the year but keep to one spot on a short lead. Perhaps take a chair out because you could be a while!

How big is your crate? She should have just enough room to stretch out but no more. Remove everything soft from the crate except maybe vetbed because it’s easy to clean and dries quickly. You don’t want anything absorbent because that is what puppies look for to pee on. Most puppies won’t lie in their own pee so usually making the crate smaller works well for potty training.

What are you doing with the accidents? Sometimes puppies can misinterpret you cleaning them up - oh look she’s making a massive fuss here, this is obviously a good place to go.

@thecapitalsunited

I think you are going to have to out wait her. Stay in the garden until she goes. Massive praise when she does. It’s not ideal at this time of the year but keep to one spot on a short lead. Perhaps take a chair out because you could be a while!

How big is your crate? She should have just enough room to stretch out but no more. Remove everything soft from the crate except maybe vetbed because it’s easy to clean and dries quickly. You don’t want anything absorbent because that is what puppies look for to pee on. Most puppies won’t lie in their own pee so usually making the crate smaller works well for potty training.

What are you doing with the accidents? Sometimes puppies can misinterpret you cleaning them up - oh look she’s making a massive fuss here, this is obviously a good place to go.

completely agree. You don't go back inside until the pup has performed. Get used to spending a lot of time outside and have shoes and coat next to the door. Generally, as soon as they wake up from a nap, straight outside, after eating etc. And lots of praise when they do perform - let the neighbours think you are loopy.

Next time she poo’s, pick it up and put some of it in the garden where you want her to go. She will smell that poo in the garden and it will encourage her to go there.
Same with a wee. Next time she wee’ s soak up it with some kitchen roll then put it where you want her to wee and weight it down with a stone.
Same principal. When you take her out let her sniff the wee/poo. She will eventually make her own area that smells of her wee/poo.
Watch her body language before she toilets, you will get to know when she wants to go. Often they sniff, head down, in circles. Mine puts her nose on the floor and walks in zig-zag lines never lifting her nose from the ground.
Wash anything in the crate with the enzyme, and it might be worth shutting the crate to stop her toileting in there.
Put your coat on and stay out until she toilets.
You can teach her to toilet on command. Think of what word you want to use, I use wee-wee and poo-poo in an excited voice, when she performs say the word and treat as soon as she is finished - have treats in your pocket. She will soon learn.
Remember- every accident is your fault.

@FippertyGibbett

Next time she poo’s, pick it up and put some of it in the garden where you want her to go. She will smell that poo in the garden and it will encourage her to go there. Same with a wee. Next time she wee’ s soak up it with some kitchen roll then put it where you want her to wee and weight it down with a stone. Same principal. When you take her out let her sniff the wee/poo. She will eventually make her own area that smells of her wee/poo. Watch her body language before she toilets, you will get to know when she wants to go. Often they sniff, head down, in circles. Mine puts her nose on the floor and walks in zig-zag lines never lifting her nose from the ground. Wash anything in the crate with the enzyme, and it might be worth shutting the crate to stop her toileting in there. Put your coat on and stay out until she toilets. You can teach her to toilet on command. Think of what word you want to use, I use wee-wee and poo-poo in an excited voice, when she performs say the word and treat as soon as she is finished - have treats in your pocket. She will soon learn. Remember- every accident is your fault.

The last line of this sounds super harsh but it is the reality. Anything puppy does wrong is your fault - it’s a failure on your part to explain rules clearly enough or anticipate need. But we all do it. Just keeping it in mind should help you be less annoyed at your puppy though.

Right now for whatever reason, your puppy doesn’t understand the toileting rules. So don’t be mad, be determined to help her understand

I'm tired but I'm not mad at all. I get that she hasn't got a scooby. It's been a loooooong time since I potty trained a dog. Our last puppy was 20 years ago. Thanks for all the advice.

Look at that face!

We trained our dog on newspaper, years ago.
Bless her, she jumped up on the chair to go on the one dad had been reading, when desperate once.

Hang in there. Mine was really slow to get it but he's been bombproof ever since.

Dont use the smell of her wee to encourage her to wee . She has weed in the house as well and this will encourage her to wee where she has weed before eg in the house.

You can use another dogs wee in the garden to encourage her to wee outside but not her wee or poo.

Re her coming back into wee - I would use this have her on a lead go outside wait a bit, she does not wee go back to the house for a millisecond then back outside and stay till she wee. Keep her on a lead.

So apparently the garden she thinks is for weeing, the crate is for weeing but on a walk absolutely not. We went for a good half hour bimble and not a drop. Back in the house and she made a lake in the kitchen while I took my boots off.

She was on lead but once she squats there isn't much to be done.

This is also pretty common not weeing on a walk - there are too much distractions and other things to do!

If she has not weed on a walk just hang around outside until she does. It is boring and frustrating but has to be done. Get a coffee in a flask, get a patio heater, get your phone to mumsnet and stay out there until she has weed

I’d keep her on a house line but on a harness and if she starts to squat drag her out quickly excitedly saying quick outside .

ha! she's gorgeous!

Firstly she is absolutely beautiful!! What breed is she?

Ours is 8 months and still has an accident once a fortnight. So we are getting there but slowly.

She didn't wee on walks until she was about 6 months, so yours may do that later when the excitement of a walk has worn off. She also hasn't pooed on a walk until this week! I was so happy.

I kept going in the garden the other day and she would NOT wee, so I popped her lead on and took her to the grassy verge at the end of her road and boom she weed right away.

The show dogs behaving (very) badly did a show on this, puppy who only went inside.

They went outside with the puppy and sat on the bench (in warm coats with large mugs of coffee) and they waited, and waited and waited.

First wee took over an hour. As soon as they were weeing, they were full of praise and rewards.

Stayed outside. 20 minutes later, next wee. Loads of praise.

20 minutes later a poo and loads of praise.

Then they went inside and no wee. half and hour later came out, and puppy weed straight away.

I know it is edited etc, but I thought it was interesting that they just sat outside, not for one wee, but until he had done several.

Just as an add on.

Our rescue is now 6, we've had him for 3 years. Once he settled with us, he prefers not to wee or poo in his own garden at all. He does, especially last thing at night, but he will always wait until he goes for a walk if he can.

We didn't get our dog as a puppy but at 6 months but he hadn't been trained. We had the no weeing on walks for AGES, I remember the fuss me and DP made of him when he finally did. You'll get there, it's just a long hard slog.

As PPs have said, wait her out in the garden. You'll need to closely look at body language (this also comes in handy when you go to pets at home and they decide they want to pee everywhere!!)

hi folks

what do you use to clean up the mess in the house, I see an enzyme solution mentioned

thanks

She's a 16 week old Greater Swiss Mountain Dog for those that asked. A harness to quick removal is a good idea! I shall order one today.

from Pets At Home:

Simple Solution

It gets all body fluid stains out of the carpet, and removes the smell so they don't go there again.
It isn't cheap, but worth it.

What a lovely face.

I use Simple Solution cleaner. It’s great. Just make sure you don’t buy the training one because that has pee smell in it to encourage the dog to go in the spot you’ve sprayed.

We bought a small carpet extractor before we got pup but we’ve only used it once. Puppy munched on a rotten stick then barfed it up in the living room. The simple solution got 95% of it out though.